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22nd Feb 2012

Google glasses – would you buy a pair?

Would you wear a pair of glasses that could flash information right into your line of vision? Google is apparently developing glasses that resemble how Arnie gathers information in The Terminator films.

JOE

Picture the scene: you’re walking down the street and suddenly have to Google the name of a song that’s been stuck in your head for the past three days.

Rather than having to deal with the lengthy task of removing your mobile phone from your pocket and typing a few of the lyrics into the search engine, all you have to do is tilt your head back and watch as the information appears right in front of you. Amazing, right?

The Daily Mail reports that pretty soon all of us could be walking around with a pair of hi-tech glasses that will flash information right in your field of vision, sort of like how Arnie gathers information in The Terminator.

Google is apparently set to unveil a pair of new glasses that have a built-in computer screen by the end of year, well according to insiders anyway.

The ‘heads up display’ glasses will use Android software and come complete with cameras, eye-movement technology and they’re expected to cost as little as $250 which would be roughly €189. Not bad, right?

Sources claim that they have seen a prototype already, hinting that these hi-tech spectacles could soon become a reality.

The glasses will have a 3G or 4G data connection and have a host of sensors including motion sensors and GPS. The only thing you can’t do with these glasses? Make a phone call. Sad face. Basically you can do everything that you can do already on your phone bar send and receive calls and texts – so you might want to keep that smartphone you already have.

“Our tipster has now seen a prototype and said it looks something like Oakley Thumps. These glasses, we heard, have a front-facing camera used to gather information and could aid in augmented reality apps,” said Seth Weintrab, a Google specialist who writes for the website 9to5Google.

“The heads up display (HUD) is only for one eye and on the side. The navigation system currently used is a head tilting to scroll and click. We are told it is very quick to learn,” he added.

Could you imagine if these glasses actually took off? We’d all be walking around nodding our heads like mad and not speaking to anybody else because we’re too busy Googling stuff and posting on Facebook. Oh wait, we’re kind of like that already…

“It is currently a secret with only a few geeky types knowing about it, and Google is apparently unsure if it will have mass-market appeal,” said Weintraub, speaking about the glasses.

The glasses are reportedly being developed with Google’s special ‘Google X’ laboratory. The X lab is a secret component of the Google empire where scientists work on crazy, out-there ideas. While Google has already admitted to the existence of the secret lab, many employees are unaware that it is actually a real thing.

Google co-founder Sergey Brin is deeply involved with the secret lab. It is known that his business card is a piece of silver metal that has the letter X imprinted on it. Suspicious, right?

Anyway, it’ll be interesting to see if these glasses actually make it to the market. Would you buy a pair?

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